Juraj Slávik papers, 1918-1968

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Summary

Creators:
Slávik, Juraj, 1890-1969
Abstract:
Correspondence, speeches and writings, reports, dispatches, memoranda, telegrams, clippings, and photographs relating to Czechoslovak relations with Poland and the United States, political developments in Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak emigration and émigrés, and anti-Communist movements in the United States.
Extent:
54 manuscript boxes, 5 envelopes, 3 microfilm reels (23.5 Linear Feet)
Language:
Czech
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Juraj Slávik papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

The Juraj Slávik papers were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives from his wife, Gita Slávik, in two installments. The first, which arrived in May 1976, included material relating to Slávik's government service in Poland and the United States, Czechoslovak emigration and emigres, and anti-communist movements in the U.S. The second installment arrived in July 1978 and consisted of correspondence, personal documents, photographs, and microfilm relating to Slávik's service as a statesman, and his memoirs.

The bulk of the collection consists of Slávik's speeches and writings, namely his numerous lectures in Great Britain during World War II, his patriotic radio speeches broadcast to Czechoslovakia by the BBC for the London-based Czechoslovak government-in-exile during World War II, as well as his writings on the history of Slovakia and its role within Czechoslovakia (see, in the speeches and writings file, "Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic," "Slovensko až do dneška," and "Protectorate Slovakia").

Of great importance are Slávik's memoirs entitled "Moja pamať - živá kniha (My Memory - A Living Book), which were published as a series of articles in New Yorkský Denník during the years 1955-1957. They explain the events that contributed to the downfall of Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1938 and 1939, describe the beginning of the Czechoslovak exile movement in 1939 and 1940, the creation and activities of the Czechoslovak National Committee in Paris, and the deeds and fate of the Czechoslovak provisional government in London in 1940-1945.

Of special note in the career file are Slávik's numerous dispatches and reports from the Czechoslovak Legation in Warsaw to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague, shedding some light on Czechoslovakia's relations with Poland before World War II. Also interesting in that series are materials relating to the peace settlement at the end of World War II and population transfers (see Ambassador to the United States in the career file).

Of great importance are also documents on Czechoslovak emigration and emigres, and anti-communist movements in the U.S. (see Member, Council of Free Czechoslovakia in the career file).

Biographical / historical:
Date Event
1890 January 28
Born in Dobrá Niva, Slovakia
1910-1911
Ecole de Droit, Paris
1911
College de France, Paris
1913
Received his law degree from the University of Budapest
1918
Secretary of the Slovak National Council, Bratislava
1926
Minister of Agriculture and of the Unification of Laws (appointed by Jan Masaryk)
1929-1932
Minister of the Interior
1929-1935
Member of Parliament
1936 February 1 - 1939 March 15
Ambassador to Poland
1939 summer
Went on lecture tour in the United States for three months (started liberation movement along with Beneš)
1939 July
Went back to Poland to help Czechoslovak soldiers, officers, and airmen escape from Hitler-occupied Czechoslovakia
1939 September
Left for France after the war started
1939-1940
Member of the Czechoslovak National Committee in Paris
1940 June
Left Paris for London
1940-1945
Broadcast via BBC to Hitler-occupied Czechoslovakia
Minister of the Interior and Minister of Education, Government-in-Exile, London
1945 May
Returned to Czechoslovakia
1945 June - 1946 June
Worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1946 June - 1948 March
Ambassador to the United States
1946-1947
Member of the Czechoslovak Delegation to the United Nations
Accompanied Jan Masaryk to the Paris Peace Conference
1948 March 3
Resigned his post as ambassador in protest against the coup d'Ă©tat in Czechoslovakia ("I have decided to fight for Czechoslovak democracy")
1949
Member of the Executive Board and Chairman of the Social-Aid Committee of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia
1954?
Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the Assembly of Captive European Nations
1969 May
Died, Washington, D.C.
Acquisition information:
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 1976.
Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Juraj Slávik papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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